Work "enemy" turns out to be the only one to have employee's back when he needed it, worked 6-8 extra unpaid hours for him and refuses to accept a gift in retribution: 'I approached him about it and he told me basically he was busy and not to bother him'

Author image for Olivia Arocena
Olivia Arocena • Writer and Editor
Jul 4, 2026 4:00 PM EDT

From enemies to buddies

It's funny how we act around timid personalities. We project all kinds of dark character traits when, in reality, we don't know anything about them precisely because they are so reserved. I'm glad this employee found out about her coworker's real personality in the best way possible. Her finding out he wasn't so evil after all wasn't that shocking; what was shocking was his refusal to accept anything in exchange afterwards. I've never seen someone with such strict moral values in real life before. Have you?

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  • group of people in an office looking at one man
    via Redmind Studio

    A representation of the group surprised by the 'enemy's' actions

  • My work “enemy” was the only one to have my back

    I had a job in the past where if you want a shift off or even part of a shift, you have to get a coworker to cover for you or you don't get it off. My main two coworkers I'll call N and P were basically
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  • good work friends. I covered for them regularly. Even N sometimes would call out last minute or leave early last minute because her "kid was sick" even when it seemed sort of unlikely. Literally 15+ times I had covered for her
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  • and P as well. Occasionally but pretty infrequently either would cover for me, but I rarely asked them to. Meanwhile we had a coworker I'll call C. Nobody liked C because he was a hardass and
    via foreverand2025
  • antisocial. He was good at his job but if you asked for help he'd do it for you then look you de da in the eye like you're a total idiot. He never socialized and was basically a to everyone. Sometimes we would complain about him
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  • behind his back but the nice thing about C was he more or less minded his own business. Well I ended up going through a bulls legal thing and I had several meetings and court
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  • ordeals that I had no choice but to go to. I explained my embarrassing situation to N and P and both assured me they'd cover for me no problem. Fast forward a month and guess what? Both had an excuse (with
    via foreverand2025
  • 1-2 exceptions over the course of about 6 months) and never covered sh for me. I almost lost my job twice and basically lived in constant stress trying to not miss court dates or meetings but also keep my job.
    via foreverand2025
  • Finally on a day neither would cover for me and I couldn't get away with being gone only an hour I broke down and asked C. I hadn't told him my situation and doubt he knew because he was not one to gossip. I told him
    via foreverand2025
  • group of people looking at laptop
    via Creatopy

    A depiction of how close the coworkers used to be before the employee needed a favour

  • what was going on and asked him fully expecting him to say no but I was desperate. He just said "fine" and that was it. Over the course of the next 4 or months so as I finished up all my legal
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  • stuff (and ultimately came out okay, legally), C covered for me another 4- 5 times. Each time I asked he'd just say okay or fine and that was it. He never once said no. Now sometimes you can
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  • We often confuse asocial with antisocial; some people are genuinely not interested in small talk or having many friends, and that isolated fact doesn’t ‘earn’ them a diagnosis. Everything seems to have a diagnosis these days. They are just not as interested in making many friends at work. Not every asocial person is this morally irreproachable, but the employee who wrote this story happened to stumble upon one who was.



     

  • clock out and let the other person stay clocked in extra. But if you got too much overtime or missed too many hours you could get in trouble either way. So he probably worked 6- 8 hours unpaid to cover for me over the total period.
    via foreverand2025
  • At the end I calculated how much money he'd worked for free (I did clock out so I wasn't paid but neither was he). We had lockers you basically can slide stuff into in our break room. So I put the money in cash in an envelope and
    via foreverand2025
  • put it in his locker one day before clocking out. Two days later I found he had. put the envelope back in MY locker with all the cash in it. I approached him about it and he told me basically he was busy and not to bother him.
    via foreverand2025
  • C quit several months later. He did give a notice but we found out after he left which was his request. Normally if someone leaves we sign a card and do a small gift certificate which would've been a way for me to at least try to
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  • pay him back but since he kept it secret about his leaving I never was able to even do that.
    via foreverand2025
  • pink envelope
    via Siora Photography

    A picture depicting the gift she never got to give

  • It wouldn’t have made his good actions worse if he accepted gifts in return; in fact, he worked extra unpaid hours just because of this favour. I wish I knew some karma would return his favours sometime in the future. Also, he created such a mysterious aura around him; now I want to know how he thinks and what he’s doing now. For our friend, the employee, this was a stroke of luck. She was able to resolve her issues without compromising her work, and she got to keep the presents she was to give to him. Maybe she could start questioning whether being a social butterfly like her former work besties really is a good indicator of their values. Sometimes all we have to do is sit back and enjoy the blessings we've got, right?.

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workplace-stories toxic-workplace work workplace toxic-work-environment
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